Review: ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Episode 104

Episode 104, Destroy Malevolence, is the conclusion to the Malevolence arc in these beginnings of The Clone Wars and it is a good conclusion to the end of this thrilling battle. Grievous’ war ship the Malevolence is critically damaged do the attack run by Anakin and his squadron of fighters destroying the ships ion cannon. Now in full retreat from Obi-Wan Kenobi and his fleet of Republic battle ships, Grievous is contacted by Count Dooku who informs him that a bargaining chip is about to fall into his hands. Padme happens to be that chip and was sent by Palpatine to negotiate a treaty with the Banking Clan, a huge separatist ally, and she falls under capture of the Malevolence forcing the Republic to halt their attack while they mull what to do to rescue her. Anakin and Obi-Wan end up infiltrating the Separatist battle ship and begin their way to hopefully sabotage the ship while rescuing Padme, all without being captured.The episode begins by cutting between Padme trying to hide on the ship while she tries to reach Anakin and Obi-Wan and then separates the lovers from Obi-Wan as they try to take out the ships hyper drive and Shields respectively.Anakin reaches the bridge and makes certain “modifications” and reactivates the hyper drive of the Malevolence, while Obi-Wan is confronted by a few squads of battle droids and General Grievous that halts his plans and sends him on the run, dispatching droids as he goes.This episode is action packed again and remains very engaging from start to finish. The lightsaber action is a bit short, but very sweet of what we get to see. It would have nice to see Obi-Wan and Grievous battle it out a bit harder and longer as well, but maybe next time right? The episode has a couple of good laughs in it as well and shows off just how bad ass Obi-Wan can be as he dices up all comers. Padme proves to be much more effective and necessary in this episode as well, as compared to The Clone Wars film, and shows promise that the show creators can introduce her and use her effectively in the series in future installments.In the end, Destroying Malevolence is another solid entry into The Clone Wars series, though not as good as its prequel episode or the opening Yoda episode. But still, an entertaining 22 minutes that continues to keep me coming back for more.7.5/10

p.s. next week’s episode looks to be our first all clones episode which is very intriguing.